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Site to watch: ProgrammableWeb.com

So what’s the point of this site? Although still euphemistically ‘in beta’, the goal is to create a home page for Web 2.0 developers. Content to include news, reviews, comparisons, and examples. Formal APIs, unofficial APIs, and accidental APIs are all fair game. Anything ‘programmatic’ that’s publicly accessible online from sources including Amazon, Google, eBay, Microsoft, del.icio.us, Feedster, UPS, EVDB, WeatherBug, indeed, Blogger and others. [Hey John, don’t forget Yahoo! Actually, John does list Yahoo’s APIs here. – CD]

Why? Because going From Web Page to Web Platform is a big deal. It’s immature and a bit ill-defined but full of potential. To particpate as developers requires understanding, and to do that means to know what the parts are and how they work.

Another way to look at this site is from its genesis: frustration. I wanted to get the ‘big picture’ view of web apis. So I picked-up what books I could find (like Iverson). Pretty good start. But not enough. Then where? Everywhere. Despite what seems like an infinite number of social/web2.0 blogs, sites and businesses, I still couldn’t find the ‘go-to’ place I wanted.

Although it’s in the early stages, the site looks promising and I agree with John that the web-as-platform is a HUGE deal (why else would I leave my CTO gig to take a job at Yahoo! with the word “platform” in the title?) I actually met John when I was at InfoWorld since he used to be involved in the NY CTO Club that I wrote about and visited regularly. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on his site.